Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·PinnedMember-onlyHow to Get InspiredIf you want to write, let stories find you where you are. — A few years ago I was living in Paris, trying to write but not getting anywhere. Ever since my family’s move from California to France for work, I had felt unsettled, distracted, and overwhelmed. …Writing7 min readWriting7 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Feb 4, 2024Finish your book in 2024.Learn your craft. Grow as a writer. Get your novel on the page. Do you want to write a novel or memoir? Do you need structure and accountability to see your book through to completion? Do you want to finish a manuscript you started or bring a dreamed-of writing project…Writing Class3 min readWriting Class3 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Jan 24, 2024Finish your book this yearLearn your craft. Stay Accountable. Get inspired. — If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you may know that when it comes to writing, I’m all about patience. I believe the slow and steady approach yields better, more meaningful results than fast-paced writing marathons. A book takes time to percolate. The book you set out to…Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Published inFiction Attic Press·Jan 13, 2024Call for Submissions: Flash Fiction and Novella-in-FlashFiction Attic Press publishes flash fiction by new and established writers — Fiction Attic Press has been publishing flash fiction online and in print since 2005. Our contributors include widely published, award-winning authors as well as previously unpublished writers. We are always on the lookout for great flash fiction–1,000 words or fewer. Submit your flash fiction here. …Call For Submissions2 min readCall For Submissions2 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Dec 28, 2023Why I Still Love a Good Writing Prompt, Decades into My Writing CareerCraft Week: Ask Me Anything — Over at The Caffeinated Writer Substack, we’re having Craft Week, wherein I invite readers to ask me anything. If it’s about writing and publishing (the one thing I know a lot about), I’ll answer. If it’s about coffee, I’ll answer. And if it’s about anything else, I may or may…Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Dec 19, 2023Member-onlyWhat Did You Write This Year?Celebrate what you’ve written…and all the living that got in the way — It is the nature of the year’s end that we take the measure of our year. As writers, this means we think about what we’ve written — and, more often, what we haven’t written. For many of us, the end of the year usually brings about feelings of guilt. …Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
Dec 5, 2023Three Books That Inspired Me to Writeand one that inspired me to try a new genre — Today, I thought I’d share a few books that have appeared at just the right moment in my life and have had a significant impact on my writing over the years. Most of these books came into my life decades ago, during a brief period in my early and mid-twenties…Writing6 min readWriting6 min read
Nov 30, 202310 Great Books for WritersFrom the practical to the inspiring — I’ll begin with a caveat: the best book for any writer is the novel, story collection, or essay collection that inspires you to write. Every writer is a reader first. So by the time you begin reading books about writing, you should have been reading voraciously for years. …Books For Writers4 min readBooks For Writers4 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Nov 27, 2023Cyber Monday for Writers, Part 2Save on Classes to Help You Write, Revise, and Publish In the previous post, Great Cyber Monday Deals for Writers, I shared two excellent tools I use to outline and draft my novels, as well as an indispensible publishing tool, all on sale today. In this post, I’m sharing something…Writing Classes2 min readWriting Classes2 min read
Published inThe Caffeinated Writer·Nov 27, 2023Great Cyber Monday Deals for WritersTreat yourself to software that saves time and improves your writing — Do you need special novel-writing software to compose your novels? Probably not. You could write everything longhand in a notebook, and type out in Word. That said, novel-writing software can help you streamline the process and make the best of your novel’s many moving parts. …Writing3 min readWriting3 min read